In 1969 the Congress of the United States was struggling to respond to
widespread and growing public concern over the quality of the nation's
environment. This concern had been building for several years in light of
numerous reports that the country's air, water, wildlife, and quality of human
life were being degraded, in part by activities undertaken, funded, or
permitted by the federal government.

From more than 30 bills introduced to address various aspects of this issue,
committees in the Senate and House of Representatives each produced a bill to
declare a national policy in favor of environmental quality. These bills also
established by law a Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in the Executive
Office of the President, modeled on the Council of Economic Advisors, that
would advise the President on environmental matters and monitor the
environmental performance of the executive branch agencies.

The National Environmental Policy Act was signed into law in January 1970.
Its general purposes are: to declare a national policy which will encourage
productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote
efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and
biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the
understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the
Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) includes the specific
requirement that all federal agencies must prepare and circulate, for major
federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment,
a detailed statement on the environmental impacts, adverse environmental
effects, and alternatives to the proposed action. Consequently, federal
agencies began developing environmental impact statements (EIS) to evaluate
the impacts of an activity, and a set of alternative actions, on the affected
environment. Under CEQ regulations, a federal agency may prepare an
environmental assessment (EA) to determine whether the preparation of an EIS
is necessary. That is, an EA may conclude that the proposed action would not
significantly affect the environment. Rather than proceed with preparing an
EIS, the federal agency may issue a finding of no significant impact (FONSI).

Under the National Environmental Policy Act, federal agencies are required to
seek the views of the state regarding a proposed action, but are not required
to comply with state laws or policies. However, federal agencies are obligated
to respond to state comments on NEPA documents and to attempt to accommodate
the state's concerns. Regardless of this obligation, NEPA does not compel
compliance with state laws as CZMA does. However, it was the first law
requiring federal agencies to consider the impact of their activities on the
environment, and to provide a forum for determining compliance with other
federal laws, including CZMA. Because of this, a NEPA document is usually a
key opportunity for making the state’s consistency decision.